Visual Studio Code vs OpenAI Codex
Which is better in 2026? Five scores, side by side.
Visual Studio Code is the better app overall, scoring 9.2 to 8.7. Visual Studio Code wins on 5 of the 5 scores, OpenAI Codex on 0.
Coders of any level who want one free editor for every language
ChatGPT subscribers who want a capable coding agent at no extra cost
Score by score
The details
| Feature | Visual Studio Code | OpenAI Codex |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Developer Tools | Developer Tools |
| Category rank | #1 of 13 | #8 of 13 |
| Developer | Microsoft | OpenAI |
| Pricing | Free | Free + paid plans |
| Usable for free | Yes | Yes |
| iPhone & iPad | — | ✓ |
| Android | — | ✓ |
| Mac | ✓ | ✓ |
| Windows | ✓ | ✓ |
| Linux | ✓ | ✓ |
| Web | ✓ | ✓ |
Common questions
Is Visual Studio Code better than OpenAI Codex?
Visual Studio Code is the better app overall, scoring 9.2 to 8.7. Visual Studio Code wins on 5 of the 5 scores, OpenAI Codex on 0.
Which is cheaper, Visual Studio Code or OpenAI Codex?
Visual Studio Code: Free for any use; GitHub Copilot has a free tier, with Pro from $10/month. OpenAI Codex: Included in every ChatGPT plan, even Free; Plus is $20 a month and Pro from $100. On value for money, Visual Studio Code scores higher.
Do Visual Studio Code and OpenAI Codex work on the same devices?
Only OpenAI Codex runs on iPhone & iPad, Android.
Which is more private, Visual Studio Code or OpenAI Codex?
Visual Studio Code scores higher on privacy (7.8/10). Collects crash, error and usage telemetry unless you set telemetry.telemetryLevel to off. Extensions have their own telemetry that this setting does not cover. No account or ads.
Strengths and weaknesses
Visual Studio Code
- Free, with a huge store of extensions
- Great tools for debugging, Git and remote coding
- Works on Mac, Windows, Linux and in your browser
- Lots of extensions can slow startup and eat memory
- Usage tracking stays on until you switch it off
Visual Studio Code is the go-to code editor for a reason. It's free and fast enough for big projects. Its extension store covers almost every language and tool. Git, debugging and remote coding are built in. Copilot now runs full agents with subagents, lasting sessions and shared canvases. The trade-offs: lots of extensions slow it down, and usage tracking stays on until you turn it off. Most developers should start here.
Full Visual Studio Code reviewOpenAI Codex
- Included even with a free ChatGPT account
- Open-source CLI under the Apache 2.0 licence
- Runs on Mac, Windows and Linux
- Free and Go plans are meant for light tasks only
- Merged ChatGPT desktop app drew complaints of confusion
- Personal-plan tasks can train models unless you opt out
Codex is OpenAI's coding agent, and it now comes with every ChatGPT plan. Use it in the ChatGPT desktop app, the open-source Codex CLI, your IDE or in the cloud, where it can work on several tasks at once and review pull requests on GitHub. You can keep an eye on sessions from the ChatGPT phone app too. July's merge of the Codex app into ChatGPT confused plenty of people, and personal-plan tasks can train models unless you opt out.
Full OpenAI Codex review
